In this Stacked Pro breakdown:
- We compared 10 years of freehold and leaseholdhttps://stackedhomes.com/freehold-or-leasehold-condo/”>leasehold condoef=”https://stackedhomes.com/district-15-boutique-condo-profitability-analysis/”>condo transactions across resale, sub-sale, and new launches
- In shorter time frames, one tenure outpaced the other by over 20%, revealing patterns most buyers overlook
- But stretch the timeline far enough, and a surprising reversal happens — with returns most buyers don’t expect
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It’s been drilled into the Singaporean mindset that “freehold is better.” But this is an oversimplified saying that ignores a key fundamental factor: that of time.
99 years is a long time; and it can take many decades before the freehold premium starts to pay off. For those who sell a condo in a short time span, such as within the first decade, freehold status may even be a drawback. In the following study, we look at how long you should hold a freehold condo before it really starts to matter; and we try to pinpoint the age at which a leasehold condo still tends to outperform a freehold counterpart:
Past performance is a useful signal, but it's not a forecast. The projects that outperformed over the last cycle aren't guaranteed to do so again, and the reasons they outperformed may no longer apply.
The more useful question is whether a particular property still makes sense at today's price, given your budget, objectives and timeline. That's where many buyers find it helpful to get a second opinion.
Over time, that's also why we decided to work with agents who shared the same data-driven and advisory-led approach behind our editorial, consultants who could help readers think through decisions more objectively, rather than simply push transactions.
Today, the team has worked with more than 2,000 clients across over $5B in property transactions.
Comparing freehold and leasehold properties over the past 10 years
For the following, we compared the price growth of freehold versus leasehold condos from 2014 to 2024.
As is common practice in the property market, we regard 999-year lease projects as being effectively similar to freehold, for these comparisons. We also excluded condos built from 2015 as their inclusion in the dataset will distort prices since newer condos will likely be leasehold as the Government no longer sells freehold land.
| Year | Freehold | Leasehold |
| 2014 | $1,366 | $1,037 |
| 2015 | $1,361 | $1,039 |
| 2016 | $1,377 | $1,041 |
| 2017 | $1,371 | $1,055 |
| 2018 | $1,450 | $1,095 |
| 2019 | $1,508 | $1,064 |
| 2020 | $1,451 | $1,042 |
| 2021 | $1,565 | $1,136 |
| 2022 | $1,684 | $1,256 |
| 2023 | $1,754 | $1,368 |
| 2024 | $1,803 | $1,426 |
| Annualised | 2.81% | 3.24% |
| Difference in $PSF | $437 | $389 |
Over the past decade, the $PSF gap between freehold and leasehold has widened marginally. In terms of annualised percentage growth, however, leasehold seems to have a slight upper hand. This is due to the freehold premium: a freehold property has a higher initial cost, often (but not always) around 15 to 20 per cent higher than a leasehold counterpart. This makes it easier for leasehold to outperform freehold, as there’s more room for appreciation.
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